Anthony Albanese Instagram – Lowitja O’Donoghue was one of the most remarkable leaders this country has ever known. As we mourn her passing, we give thanks for the better Australia she helped make possible. Dr O’Donoghue had an abiding faith in the possibility of a more united and reconciled Australia. It was a faith she embodied with her own unceasing efforts to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to bring about meaningful and lasting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Life threw significant challenges at her – not least a childhood in which she was separated from her family, her language, and even her own name. From the earliest days of her life, Dr O’Donoghue endured discrimination that would have given her every reason to lose faith in her country. Yet she never did. Dr O’Donoghue was a figure of grace, moral clarity, and extraordinary inner strength. She was like a rock that stood firm in the storm – sometimes even staring down the storm. More than anything, she was one of the great rocks around which the river of our history gently bent, persuaded to flow along a better course. With an unwavering instinct for justice and a profound desire to bring the country she loved closer together, Dr O’Donoghue was at the heart of some of the moments that carried Australia closer to the better future she knew was possible for us, among them the Apology to the Stolen Generation and the 1967 referendum. She provided courageous leadership during the Mabo debates and as chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Dr O’Donoghue knew that our best future was a shared one built on the strong, broad foundations of reconciliation. As she put it when she was made Australian of the Year, “Together we can build a remarkable country, the envy of the rest of the world.” Throughout her time in this world, Dr O’Donoghue walked tall – and her example and inspiration made us all walk taller. Now she walks in another place. Yet thanks to all she did throughout her long and remarkable life, she will always be around us.